1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a mass spectrometer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many fields of space research, it is necessary to determine both the mass of a species in a planetary environment as well as its abundance. For complex environments, such as Titan or Mars, a comet, or asteroid, one will encounter heavy species (e.g., tholins at Titan), or species that will be unknown and possibly biological in nature (Titan, Mars, asteroids). In all cases one needs to have well-resolved mass spectra up to the highest masses (order of thousands of amu), and accurate measurements of isotope ratios. One also requires high mass resolving power and high mass range in biological applications, when examining large protein molecules. At the moment, there is no technology that will provide high-mass storage, ultrahigh resolution, and total ion abundance. One or more embodiments of the present invention satisfy this need.